The short version
Emma gives you cleaner data and net worth; Cleo gives you personality and prompts. Both charge monthly for what is essentially spend analysis, with no retirement, ISA or tax modelling.
Why people compare them
Both are UK apps that sit on top of Open Banking with a paid tier, so people compare what the subscription actually buys.
Price and fit, side by side
| Feature | Cleo | Emma |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | CleoFree tier, then $1.99 to $5.99 per month | EmmaFree tier, then £4.99 per month |
| Free tier | CleoYes | EmmaYes |
| Billed in pounds | CleoNo | EmmaYes |
| Best for | CleoUS users who want a conversational nudge about spending and occasional access to a small advance | EmmaPeople who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions |
Where Cleo wins
- The chat interface genuinely gets people to open a money app, which most budgeting tools fail at
- Very strong app store ratings, at 4.7 from around 246,000 US ratings
- Cash advances are available on the standard route at no express fee
Where Emma wins
- A real free tier that covers the basics
- Built for the UK, with UK bank connections through Open Banking
- Good at surfacing wasted subscriptions and recurring charges
Where both fall short
- Neither models UK pensions or answers the retirement question directly.
- Neither handles ISA allowances or the tax wrapper decisions around them.
- Both are built US-first, so UK users pay in dollars and work around US assumptions.
If neither is quite right
If what you actually want is the retirement answer rather than a better dashboard, that is the gap Delphina was built for: UK pensions, ISAs and tax, projected to the age you want to stop. It does not do the job Cleo does for us users who want a conversational nudge about spending and occasional access to a small advance, so if that is the real problem, Cleo is still the better buy. Free plan is £0, no card.
Cleo vs Emma: common questions
Cleo is $1.99 to $5.99 per month and Emma is £4.99 per month. Compare the billing period before the number: an annual price and a monthly price are not the same thing.
You can, and some people do, because they solve different halves of the problem. It does mean paying for both, so add the two annual figures together before deciding.
Judge it on billing currency, Open Banking coverage and whether ISAs and pensions are handled. Emma has the edge here, because Cleo bills in a foreign currency.
Cleo suits us users who want a conversational nudge about spending and occasional access to a small advance. Emma suits people who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions. The one that matches how you already think about money will take less setting up.
Cleo scores 4.7/5 on Apple App Store (US) from 246,000 ratings. Emma scores 3.5/5 on Trustpilot from 543 reviews. Weigh the volume as well as the score.
Delphina covers the gap both leave, which is UK pensions, ISAs and tax projected forward to retirement. The trade-off is that it does not do the job Cleo does for us users who want a conversational nudge about spending and occasional access to a small advance, so if that is the real need, pick one of these two.